Am I dense? I could've sworn ATA66/100 cables were different from regular IDE cables

[raz]

I was looking thru some web sites thinking about getting some rounded cables and saw that 2cooltech listed IDE cables but didn't list any 66/100/133 cables...so I e-mailed them.
"Was wondering if you guys carried any rounded ata66/100 cables."

About 45 minutes later I got a reply.

"All of the rounded IDE cables I stock are compatible with ATA 33/66/100/133. Ian."

Hmmm. I'm thinking I don't want to shop there anymore.

[Executioner]

At least you got an email returned. I've sent 2cooltech 2 emails asking the same thing: what heatsink and fan combo will work best on a slotket card - no overclocking intended. Still waiting for an answer.

As far as the cables, he is correct. The newer ATA66/100/133 are compatable with ATA33. In fact, if you have a new hard drive and an older mobo that using ATA33, they (the hard drive mfg's) recommend that you use the new ide cable that came with the drive. You just have to remember that the blue end gets attached to the mobo, black is for the master hd, and gray is for the slave hd.

[Hipnotic_Tranz]

I believe ATA/33 has 40-wires where as ATA/66/100/133 has 80 wires. Both have 40-pin. And as far as I know, you can use either cable on whatever drive. Only, you will either be limited in the bandwith you have (ATA/33 cable on an ATA/100 drive, for example) or you will have more than you'll use. (ATA/33 drive with an ATA/100 cable, for example)

[PreDatoR]

ATA66/100 cables are 80 wire 33's are 40 just like HT said... The 100 cables are backwards compatible with the rest of them...

[raz]

It'd be like if he was listing PC100 memory and I asked if he had any PC133...and he handed me a stick of his PC100 and said "Here ya go, this is compatible, it'll work in your machine."

I figured there was only one way to be sure so I just e-mailed him and asked if his cables are 40 or 80 pin.

[DocSilly]

The 80-pin IDE cables are backward compatible to ATA33 .... they have an extra groundline for every of the 40 data lines = 80 wires compared to the old ATA33 cables with only 40 wires.

So you can plug an old ATA33 into an 80-wire cable and it'll work in ATA33 mode, if ya also plug an ATA100 HDD into it it'll run only in ATA33 mode.

It looks they only carry 24" rounded IDE cables, that's out of the IDE standards that limit the max IDE cable length to 18".
This might work no prob with ATA33 speeds but trying to run an ATA66/100/133 increases the risc of datacorruption ... so you might have to limit the OS to use ATA33 or even slower speeds ... some have no probs running ATA66 or faster at 24" cables, others get instability problems or datacorruption and don't know why ...

2cooltech does only show IDE cables, but the details say ATA66/100, http://2cooltek.safeshopper.com/57/cat57.htm?568 . So his answer isn't wrong, their cables are compatible with ATA33/66/100/133 .... even though they're too long for the IDE specs.
ATA133 doesn't require newer cables than the ATA66/100. The details also show that those rounded IDE cables are 80-conductor ...

[wvjohn]

while we're on the subject - i got some rounded cables to clear up clutter and was going to use them on the two drives hooked to my promise 66 controller (which are each split into 2 partitions and are my boot drives) after i hooked them up, i only had one partition on each drive (and naturally my boot partition wasn't one of them) - they came with the master/slave ends - when i use a regular ol' ata66 cable no problemo - anyone bumped into this?

[raz]

Doh! I guess I should've looked at the description closer. Thanks for pointing that out Doc.

[Busby]

80 conductor, not 80 pin. Sorry just wanted to clear that up.

[DocSilly]

D'oh, and I thought I corrected all my 80-somethings in my post

[nexus_7]

Stick with KDC. cables and shipping are cheaper and they have more of a selection. 2cool has an attitued on ocasion that isnt fun to deal with.

Greg